Lt-Gen. Danjuma, purges, probes and economy (2)

Continued from yesterday
IF Governors could not pay salaries, then they forfeit the right to be addressed as such: but the President not only allowed them to take money which they had been so profligate in spending hitherto, but to bask in the glory that having no savings is in itself an admirable feat because they could lay their hands on money from the so called Excess Crude Account and profits from LNG Operations.

President Buhari should have tongued-whipped the irresponsible Governors and send them back to look for money to meet their obligations. The debts were owed despite massive borrowing from banks, large scale sale of Government property, wasteful purchase of jets and other rich men’s toys, etc. Yet the Government could not pay salaries.

Does Nigeria now have within its leadership core – an irreconcilable political world view: 1. a President who wants to abolish corruption and 2.a political class in the National Assembly and Local Governments and political parties who sought power only for the purpose of personal aggrandizement? President Buhari should hold a retreat to resolve these themes before venturing a step forward. Excess crude account is a chimera, a mere political construct to ensure continued dependence on oil producing areas for the maintenance of all of Nigeria. Oil amounts to 10.2% of the GDP.

Yet accounts for over 80% of the revenue that goes to sustain all the states and Local Governments. Did we have excess cocoa account, excess palm produce account, excess groundnut account, hide and skin account – why oil? A state that cannot sustain itself from its own resources does not have the right to be a state: inviability cannot be a prerequisite of a state: in future, Nigeria’s states should be able to balance their budgets; Keynesian monetary policies of deficit financing are not open to states within a country. Nor is selling Government property, and other national assets, and an alternative to good money husbandry in the states.

Those countries in the West where privatization have succeeded, at least have accumulated assets worth selling. During the accumulation of these assets, a number of social needs were met – laying down infrastructure, including education, national health scheme, etc.

Today, Nigeria with no assets worth talking about wants to introduce national health schemes based on private insurance. Is this possible? We have had since 2008 Quantitative Easing; in other words, Government printing electronic money to buy its own bonds, keeping wages low, unemployment low. I see that we have no post offices, having allowed our postal services to die, yet the buildings and valuable post office sites and assets have been privatised: giving way to gleaming high rise office buildings.

This mentality – that Government assets are available for plunder has led various ministers to use their ministries and parastatals under them as launching pads for a rapacious attack on Government Property and the suborning of Government assets for private use. What happens when all these assets have been taken up by the politicians and their elite political partners in crime?

The magnitude of Buhari’s fight against corruption cannot be over emphasised; if the President means to do this he must be aware of certain facts. Nigerians are easily satiated or satisfied soon enough as he found out in 1983 when he rolled out War Against Indiscipline (WAI) and jailed nearly all the politicians, some for 200 years or more. The result was a coup against him; which freed all the politicians, including the truly guilty ones.

The President must collate all the probes hitherto and see what happened to these inquiries and reports. He must speak to the paramount secretaries now doing ministerial work to be careful and remain straight. He must popularize the campaign against corruption by speaking to religious and youth leaders, campaign in social media, amongst the trades union and market women, traders and business men, spelling out what corruption does to the society; he must let the people own the campaign. He must realise that APC and PDP are cut from the same corrupt cloth; and must be scrupulously fair – no favouritism.

The President must realise that there are other problems in Nigeria apart from corruption: how to revive the economy, how to cut the cost of Government and yet lay foundation for rapid development. How can Nigeria revive on oil price that is U.S. 40 per day?

Many politicians and Government officials see the campaign against corruption in personal terms – especially those who just won the election. Why all the clamour against corruption when it is now their turn to make good out of a Government position? The fight against corruption cannot be isolated to one or two regimes. If you start, then all must be probed. I do not see a corresponding zeal to stop corruption among the state governments – both APC and PDP, and definitely not among local governments; chairmen and councillors. The reforms must reach all tiers of government.

Nigeria would know no peace, certainly no justice if the issue of oil in the South South and the disposal of these assets be so manifestly unfairly distributed. It is vital for the President, as he had ordered his military headquarters to move to the North East, so he and his Ministers must move to South South for some time to truly appreciate the problems of the oil producing communities – the environmental degradation, the poverty, the lack of development of the area whose oil sustains the nation.

The ignorance of the political class and those who decide the nation’s fate about the Niger Delta is truly appalling. The easy answer which outsiders through out the Niger Delta – how well have you managed what we gave you – merely upsets the people to the point of incandescent anger, and to the trenches.

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Izeobor

Amb.(Dr) Cole should remember the adage that ” you don’t eat the crab where it is dug up”. Also the fish has to go above the water in order to drink the water even though it lives in the water. The “oil” deposits in the south south were not the direct sweat of anybody in the south south nor anybody in this world. That the God-given wealth to the geographical terrain called “Nigeria” should be solely used to develop the south south beats anybody’s imagination. You should focus your energy on how the managers of the “inequity” wealth bequeathed to the south south from the Federation account were squandered. The oil , let me emphasize again, does NOT belong to the south south because it was the handiwork of providence. South south or any region should learn how to manage their acquired resources rather than gloating over national resources, unless and until the south south geopolitical zone becomes an independent/sovereign entity.

Mazi JO

On the money! The Nation has managed the commonwealth black gold through the tiers of Government into oblivion. The problem is not the Oil per se. The hopelessness is in the people that distribute the incredible volume of resources resulting from its abundance. All is not lost though. The turnaround could hinge on the exercise chaired by this Republic.

Ikorodua

We haven’t developed to that stage yet:- where natural ressources belong to the global village. In economics, there is an ‘ADAGE’ called COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE in a location , and this includes ‘ GOD GIVEN WEALTH’,( oil for now), perhaps BRIMSTONE in future

Mazi JO

There is no other way to describe the dire situation in the Nation. We must heed these caveats before plunging into the war of attrition against corruption. It is going to be brutal hence not for the faint-hearted. I am sure the ‘generals’ designated to prosecute this campaign are reckoning. An excellent series by Dr, Cole.

Akin Mate

Guardian columnists are lazy and rarely do any research work. I didn’t even understand his point or direction. But I can assure you. The teeming youths will soon overthrow you goons, I can bet you that.

Kehinde

Too much BIG BIG GRAMMER, abi na OYIBO, in the write up. This made the write up look like a product of mere excitement and fantasies.

Izeobor

Ikorodua, when are we going to reach “that stage”? Don’t portend yourself as an apologist. When the National Assembly loafers fix their pay by comparing themselves to American counterparts, we do not remember that Nigeria has not reached “that stage” but when people discuss how Nigeria is supposed to be run, we remember we are a “fourth world”.! What an irony!